


shower your affection (let it rain on me)

by lorelaislatte



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff, High School AU, aka owen “accidentally” locks them in for a lot longer than that, literally just tooth rotting confessional fluff enjoy, seven minutes in heaven babey!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:01:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29391666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorelaislatte/pseuds/lorelaislatte
Summary: “Internalised homophobia’s a bitch, huh.”“Yeah.”They fall back into silence, and Jamie waits for Dani to break it, sensing there’s more coming. Even with the faint sound of one of Peter’s awful playlists in the background, the mildly musty smell of old wood, the atmosphere is intimate, the same kind of feeling Jamie imagines confessional booths to have. The way they’re standing, side by side without looking at each other, they’re not far off, she realises. Just need a little curtain and good to go.“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 68
Kudos: 269





	shower your affection (let it rain on me)

**Author's Note:**

> good evenin, i have once again been off my meds for a few days (accidentally) and i need you all to go and listen to florence and the machine’s ‘wish that you were here’ and tell me is it not the PERFECT song for jamie to dani. it just IS.
> 
> anyway another one shot for your nerves bc i can’t focus enough to update any of my long form fics. broken serotonin machine go wheeee. i think i’ve made dani a little more insecure than i planned, but considering she’d be like seventeen at this point, i think i can get away with it. 
> 
> (i know i mentioned an angsty song but this isn’t i’m just. having thoughts)

“Do you, uh, think they’re ever coming back?”

Jamie shrugs, cracking her neck in the awkward position she’s stuck in, uncomfortably aware of just how much of her body is going to hurt tomorrow. Dani’s crammed in next to her, both girls with their legs drawn up, facing each other in Owen’s wardrobe, all his clothes shoved as far to one side as possible to give them a bit more space. 

Seven Minutes in Heaven is always hilarious until it happens to you. 

Plenty of their friends have been in, and Jamie wishes she was with anyone else right now. The tension is heavy, she can feel it weighing on her, and the sliver of light across Dani’s face is illuminating her eyes just so, her hair loosely curled and fanned out around her. 

_Of course,_ Jamie thinks. _Of course it’s me and her._

She doesn’t dislike Dani, not at all. 

That’s sort of the problem.

Owen’s been teasing her about her crush for the last two years now, two years of Jamie watching Dani across the hallway, finding an excuse to study together, offering her class notes. Anything she could do, she did. 

There’s something captivating about Dani, had been from the moment they’d first met. She’s strikingly pretty, but it’s more than that - she has a compassion to her, a warmth and an empathy that shines through. Jamie sees the way she shrinks into herself, the way her eyes spend more time fixed on the floor than anywhere else, and yet Dani remains generous and steadfast, quickly gaining a reputation as someone who could and would help you with anything you needed. She emails around her class notes, helps people with their homework, paints the scenery for the drama club, tutors kids in the younger years who are nervously approaching their GCSEs. Dani gives so much of herself, and yet nobody but Jamie seems to notice her lack of confidence, the way something always seems to be weighing on her mind. 

She’s noticed it tonight, too. Dani had broken up with her boyfriend a month or so back, which feels like a long enough time to not be the cause of Dani’s bitten lip, or the way she’s ever-so-slightly wringing her hands together. Everyone at Rebecca’s party knows each other, so it can’t be a worry about strangers, and she’s only had a couple of drinks. Jamie crosses off the possible causes in her mind, the way she’s been doing for the last two years. 

She’s never been one to wear her heart on her sleeve. Owen knows, Hannah too, and she reckons Rebecca is more observant than she gets given credit for, but Jamie thinks she’s done a pretty good job of keeping things platonic. She doesn’t really _know_ Dani, they’ve got a couple of classes together, and they’re definitely on friendly terms, but Jamie’s painfully aware that despite her efforts, her equal worry of being too obvious has kept them as acquaintances. Still, despite their relative distance, she likes to think she keeps an eye on Dani - gives her the nice textbooks when she’s handing them out, offers her gum in class, one time getting bold enough to slip a note in Dani’s locker with _you’re doing great, promise,_ written on it after she’d seen Dani leave their German class with tears in her eyes. Little gestures to brighten her day.

Jamie’s always had an unfortunate soft spot for haunted souls - she’s been one herself for as long as she can remember. Whatever it is Dani seems to carry around with her, it draws Jamie in, not so much wanting to save her as wanting to give her what she needs to save herself. It’s an important distinction; heroism and support. Love and ownership. Dani’s more than capable, Jamie just wishes she could help her on the way. 

“If you really hate it, reckon I can bust that lock open.”

Dani smiles at her, shaking her head. “It’s fine. Sorry about this.”

“About what?”

“Getting stuck in here. With me.”

Jamie smirks at her, ignoring the way Dani’s statement hits her chest. “Seven minutes in a warm closet with a pretty girl. Been in worse scrapes.”

An unreadable expression crosses Dani’s face, some mixture of embarrassment and, if Jamie’s reading it right, happiness. She can’t quite tell in the dark, but Dani’s cheeks look slightly redder than they were a moment ago. 

“So, Dani Clayton. Any plans for the weekend?”

Dani looks back up at her. “Not really. German, again.”

“Ah, _ich kenne dieses Gefühl._ ”

“Rub it in further.”

Jamie grins at her. “Listen, you could smash me to pieces in any other subject. Gotta let me have _something.”_

There it is again, that mixture of embarrassment and a pleased look on Dani’s face. “Thanks,” she mumbles, and Jamie shuffles slightly, trying to get more comfortable.

“That is, assuming Owen ever lets us out of here. Must’ve been seven minutes now. Can barely feel my legs.”

“We can try standing, if you want?”

Jamie looks around the closet, assessing. It probably will be a lot more comfortable, though she enjoys the sight of Dani using Owen’s squished-up clothes as some kind of pillow. But her knees are really _fucking hurting_ , so she nods, trying not to bump Dani too much as she wriggles up, groaning as her back clicks in several places she doesn’t think it’s meant to. “Sorry. Bad bones.”

Dani waits for Jamie to straighten out before joining her, and _oh,_ maybe this wasn’t the best idea in the world. They’re about the same height, eye to eye, and Jamie can feel Dani’s soft breaths on her neck, the way her jumper just grazes Jamie’s front. She’s a lot closer than they’d been on the floor, their chests rising and falling in synchronised breaths, and Jamie can hear her blood pounding in her ears, curses her heartbeat for speeding up and betraying the effect Dani is having on her. 

“God,” Dani says, breaking Jamie’s thoughts as she wobbles. “Think I’m drunker than I thought I was.”

Instinctively Jamie reaches forwards, cupping Dani’s elbows to steady her, taking note of the hitch in Dani’s breath. “There. Nice and steady.”

“Thanks.”

They fall back into silence, Jamie quickly dropping her hands from Dani and missing the contact almost immediately. She can feel each second of the silence passing.

“If you ever need any help, with German, I don’t mind. I work on Sundays, but I’m free most other days.”

“No, no, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“Hey,” Jamie says, reaching out again and taking one of Dani’s hands, unable to stop herself. “You’re not asking. I’m offering. You can say no if you don’t want to, I won’t mind. But if you could use a hand, I want to help, yeah?”

Dani looks down at their entwined hands, biting her lip, and for a horrible moment Jamie thinks she’s pushed the barrier too far, that Dani is going to drop her hand and recoil, break the lock herself and run a mile. But she doesn’t. Instead, she squeezes Jamie’s hand gently, a motion of gratitude, and nods. “Okay. Yeah, okay. I’d like that.”

“Good,” Jamie replies. “ _Ich helfe_ _gern.”_

“Sorry?”

“I like to help,” Jamie tells her, all too aware of the soft smile on her face. “Plus, you seem to have something on your mind tonight, so the pleasure of my company will give you something to look forward to.”

Dani cracks a smile. “I’m fine, really.”

Jamie tuts at her. “Thing is, Dani, I don’t like being lied to. Don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but Owen’s probably off snogging Hannah somewhere, so I think we’re gonna be in here a while. Might do you good to talk.”

Dani shrugs, and Jamie presses on, sensing an opening. “Look, I know, privacy, not wanting to be a burden, all that. But I’m a much happier person than I was a year ago, and most of that’s down to regular therapy and a good cry every now and then. Promise. Is it Eddie?”

Dani looks up at her, all cornflower eyes and blonde waves, and she looks so impossibly sad that Jamie feels her heart constrict. “I, uh. I don’t really know where to start.”

“I get that. First of all, anything you say in here is totally confidential, yeah? I’m not the type to spread any rumours. Like you too much for that. So, I dunno, let’s start with Eddie. What happened?”

Dani sighs deeply, turning ever so slightly to lean against the back wall of the closet as best she can, and Jamie mirrors her, figuring it’s going to be easier for Dani to talk if she hasn’t got any eyes on her. “You’re gay, right?”

Not quite the response she’d been expecting. “Uh, yeah. Famously and exclusively.”

“I’m, uh. I’m the same.”

Well. 

“I’ve never told anybody that before.”

Jamie turns to face her. “I’m honoured. How’d you feel about it?”

Dani shrugs, looking down and picking at the hem of her dress. “A bit weird, still. I think I’ve always known, y’know? People talk about a big incident that makes them realise, some single memory, but I just...always knew.”

“I assume Eddie didn’t, though.”

She sees Dani smile ruefully. “No. Not exactly. We’ve been best friends since we were kids, so when it turned into something more, I just, I don’t know, went along with it. Waited to feel like I was meant to. _Wanted_ to feel like everyone thought I did. But I just couldn’t. It all just felt, I dunno, _wrong._ But so did being, y’know. I never cared if anyone else was, but it’s not what I was meant to be. Not what anyone wanted me to be. Not really what I wanted to be, I guess.”

“Internalised homophobia’s a bitch, huh.”

“Yeah.”

They fall back into silence, and Jamie waits for Dani to break it, sensing there’s more coming. Even with the faint sound of one of Peter’s awful playlists in the background, the mildly musty smell of old wood, the atmosphere is intimate, the same kind of feeling Jamie imagines confessional booths to have. The way they’re standing, side by side without looking at each other, they’re not far off, she realises. Just need a little curtain and good to go.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Jamie can’t for the life of her place the tone of Dani’s question. “No,” she says, with a slight chuckle. “Not really been my scene, historically. Always some complication.”

“Like?”

She’s got a choice to make here. Confess, or don’t. Take a chance and risk the rejection, or hide it away and save the consequences? 

“Oh, y’know. Straight, or at least I think they are. Seeing someone already. Not interested.”

“Bad at German?”

Her breathing stops. Jamie feels as if all the wind has been knocked out of her. 

“I, uh-“

“Oh God,” Dani interrupts, her eyes wide. “I’m an idiot. Shit. I’m sorry, I just thought with the hand-hold, and the study offer, and the-“

Jamie doesn’t let her finish. 

She takes a split-second to turn Dani towards her before kissing her fiercely, two years of yearning and wanting and watching poured fiercely into their embrace. Fuck the confessional booth, this is two years of straight-up prayer finally being answered, in the form of blonde hair and a soft lilac jumper, the gentle smell of roses and a hand hesitantly reaching up to thread through Jamie’s hair. Dani is soft, her lips desperately seeking out Jamie’s as Jamie’s hands find their way around her waist, drawing her in. Her elbow bumps against the closet door, Dani’s hip is wedged awkwardly against the back wall, but none of it matters in the moment. The only thing truly in her mind is a hand in her hair, another on her jaw, fingers softly tracing the line of her jawbone, ghosting over it in a manner that can only be described as reverent. She moves one of her hands further up Dani’s back, resting in between her shoulder blades as she deepens the kiss, Dani letting out the quietest whine as she does, and _God,_ Jamie wants to replay that sound forever. 

At some point the need for oxygen takes over, but they don’t go far, resting their foreheads together as they both breathe in heavily, hands remaining firmly on each other, the shared closeness not just a factor of their environment but a necessity. If Dani moves away from her Jamie seriously thinks she might die on the spot, too drawn in by the girl in front of her. Dani’s eyes are still closed, and Jamie is about to say something when Dani surges forwards again, drawing Jamie impossibly closer. 

If their first kiss had been urgent, this is the opposite. It’s exploratory, curious, mapping each other out and getting to grips with the turn of events. Dani’s hands are roaming now, all over her, eventually settling with one on the small of Jamie’s back and the other on her hip. Jamie moves one of her own up to stroke down Dani’s cheek, gently cradling her face and when they separate this time, Dani is staring at her, transfixed and awestruck in equal measures. 

Neither speaks for a moment, relishing in their closeness. Jamie can feel sparks shooting through her bloodstream, extending to her heart and wrapping firmly around it. She’s not sure she can quite believe what’s happening; the feeling of Dani in her arms is the only thing anchoring her to reality, a reminder that Dani is very much _here,_ tangible and real under her touch. 

“Interesting.”

“Interesting?”

Dani smiles up at her. “Didn’t realise a lack of language skill was such a turn-on.”

Jamie just grins, and kisses her again.

*

Months later, as Dani opens her exam feedback in Jamie’s kitchen and _squeals_ in excitement at her A-grade German result, Jamie kisses her with all the love she’d spilled out of Owen’s closet, pulling her girlfriend close and lifting her off the floor in glee. How remarkable, she thinks, that seven minutes of tense silence have morphed so quickly into the best seven months of her entire life, the girl in her German class who stared at the floor and left with tears in her eyes now the beacon of light in Jamie’s life. 

(And when Owen admits to deliberately having locked them in there for the best part of an hour until they’d _sorted themselves out_ , she can’t even find it in herself to chastise him.)

**Author's Note:**

> yes i’ve taken my meds now but i do like that my response to being off them consistently seems to be to just. write some dani/jamie fluff lmao
> 
> hope you liked. i know it’s short but i have to get up in four hours so y’all can be grateful for what you get x


End file.
